Altered States of Consciousness

A new series of articles in our 'Ask the Panel' section deals with the role of Altered States of Consciousness in contact experiences.

When investigating contact experiences, it quickly becomes clear that altered states of consciousness are an essential piece of the puzzle.

To begin with, there is the fact that many memories of contact experiences can only be retrieved under hypnosis. Our ability to consciously recall certain encounters seems to be limited, compared to what we can recall when we wade outside of our regular waking state of consciousness, which is characterized by brainwave activity that falls within the 12-30 Hz range, called Beta waves. Memories of contact experiences seem to be more easily accessible in Alpha or Theta states, where the brainwave activity falls within the 7.5-12Hz and 4-7.5HZ ranges, respectively.

But there is more to these altered states of consciousness than merely a better ability to remember. Contactees can often perceive beings and craft that others cannot. There is the phenomenon of astral abductions, where the person seems to bilocate. There are many dream-state encounters. That shouldn’t come as a surprise. Research regarding telepathy and remote viewing also shows that these phenomena work better when the subject is in altered states or is familiar with them.

Altered States of Consciousness

It is well documented that UFOs and beings seem to step in and out of our 3D physical reality at will. This suggests the existence of other realms that they seem to be more familiar with than we are. Esoteric literature refers to them as subtle realms and uses terms like astral and etheric for them. We can’t perceive those realms nor those who dwell in them in our normal beta wave state of consciousness. But we can when in altered states of consciousness.

In short, there is much more to the contact phenomenon than a "nuts and bolts approach only" can address. If we really want to learn about the others, we probably have to first familiarize ourselves with altered states of consciousness.

We therefore asked our panel members for their ideas on the role of altered states of consciousness in contact experiences.